Games as Jokes

supergee pointed to the Katrina the Gathering cards yesterday. I printed them out on the color printer at the office and read most of them on the train home tonight. They're quite funny even on a surface level--the choice of subjects ("George Bush, American Nero"; "Veil of Cluelessness"; "Neoconservative Darwinism") and quotes ("What didn't go right?"--George Bush to Nancy Pelosi) are great, and they form a solid history of the crisis.

What's really amazing is the degree to which the jokes are conveyed by the game mechanics. My favorite is The Blame Game, which allows you to put a point of damage on a target creature, but that creature then takes control of The Blame Game and can put two points of damage on another, which then gets control. . . . Also wonderful is Bureaucracy, a new version of the Lord of the Pit--an incredibly strong creature which is almost impossible to use and which does massive amounts of damage to your side just by existing. And right next to it, FEMA with the special ability to consume resources and Do Nothing.

Kudos to the creators of these cards, even for their occasional missteps.